Riverfest, Little Rock’s annual music festival, is coming back May 25 – 27. The event will be held at Little Rock’s Riverfront Park.
“I’m excited for it,” sophomore Turner Isenberg said. “They have a good venue set-up and they’ve been able to bring in good artists.”
Last summer, Riverfest’s board of directors announced that the event was suspended indefinitely due to exorbitant costs.
“There are very few things in Arkansas that are worth going to, and this was one of them,” freshman Nathan Mayes said. “I was really upset when they (decided to stop) having it.”
Mayes has attended the event for the last five years and said he is glad to see it coming back to Little Rock.
“I think it was a combination of mismanagement and lack of enthusiasm with our generation,” junior Little Rock native Bronson Crabtree said. “Artists do not usually think about Little Rock being a place they can come to tour.”
Universal Affairs, which is now running the annual event, is located out of Eads, Tennessee. They also runa the Alabama State Fair, the Georgia State Fair and the Tennessee Boat and Fishing expo.
“They’re making it more communal,” Crabtree said. “They are going to have amusement rides, so they’re making it for kids as well. It will be interesting to have more variety.”
Crabtree said Universal Affairs is known for taking existing events and improving them.
“They are making it a community affair,” Crabtree said. “They’re going to have local food trucks, local music and other things involving the community more.”
Riverfest started in 1978 and was originally called Summer Arts Festival. Since then, they have featured a wide variety of performances, over the years several rap, indie and country groups have taken the Riverfest stage.
“Last year they had Cage the Elephant, Grouplove and Wiz Khalifa all performed on the same stage,” Isenberg said.
Isenberg has attended Riverfest the last two years. He said that tickets were priced very reasonably when he purchased them.
“I thought $40 was incredibly low, and then they offered a deal way beforehand. They offered the tickets for $19 on a certain day,” Isenberg said. “You can’t make money on something like that.”
Riverfest’s artist lineup will be announced at the beginning of April. Tickets go on sale March 1 for a discounted price of $30. For more information, visit www.riverfestarkansas.com.
